If you find that System Preferences in OS X contains too many options that you don’t regularly use, then you should considering hiding rarely used sections of the app. By using the Customize option in System Preferences, it’s easy to both show and hide specific sections with ease.

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There are two ways to hide System Preferences sections in OS X.

Step 1: Launch System Preferences.

Step 2: Click View → Customize.

Step 3: Uncheck the sections that you wish to hide and click Done.

You can also long-click the Show All button and select the Customize option at the bottom of the menu that appears. From there, it’s just a matter of unchecking the sections that you wish to hide, followed by a click of the Done button. This alternate method is demonstrated in the video walkthrough below.

Video walkthrough

System Preferences’ View menu also allows you to switch between the way the System Preferences sections are organized. You can choose to organize by categories, which is the default display method, or you can choose to organize sections alphabetically as displayed in the screenshot below.

The nice thing about eliminating rarely used System Preferences sections, is that it’s not a permanent change. You can still use the Search box to navigate directly to specific section, and you can also use the View menu to do so as well.